Holy water font



May 30, 1961 A. F. HILLEBRAND HOLY WATER FONT Filed Dec. 29, 1958 INVENTOR. Aibe rf i/f/Zeb ra no Attorney United States Patent a" p HOLY WATER FONT Albert F. Hillebrand, 1515 s. 72nd St., West Allis, Wis. Filed Dec. 29, 1958, Ser. No. 783,406

4 Claims. (Cl. 222-187 This invention relates generally to holy water fonts and more particularly to an improved font especially adapted to be employed by the faithful for moistening their finger tips with holy water before blessing themselves by making the sign of the cross.

It is a religious practice for the faithful to moisten several finger tips of the right hand with holy water and bless themselves by making the sign of the cross when entering a place of worship, classroom and residence as well as other rooms. In order to carry out this practice holy water fonts are provided at the entranceways to make a supply of holy water available. The conventional holy water fonts that have been furnished for this purpose present an open bowl with a sponge in the bowl for absorbing the holy water and the faithful touch the sponge to moisten their finger tips with holy water. A distinct disadvantage in this type of holy water font lies in the fact that the supply of holy water is exposed to the atmosphere and evaporates rapidly. As a result, the font requires frequent attention to maintain a supply of'holy water in the bowl.

It is therefore a general object of the present inven tion' to provide an improved holy water font which will minimize the evaporation of the holy water from the font to retard the exhaustion of the supply of holy water. Another object is to provide an improved holy water font in which the bowl itself is covered to retard the evaporation of the holy water therein without the necessity of providing an additional closed reservoir for .supplying the holy water to the bowl.

Another object is to provide an improved holy water font with a covered bowl for enclosing the holy water but which renders the entire supply of holy water to the bottom of the bowl immediately accessible by a touch of the finger tips to moisten the finger tips.

A further object is to provide an improved holy water font of simple and inexpensive construction but extremely eificient in operation.

According to this invention the improved holy water font comprises a bowl or receptacle for receiving a sup ply of holy water. The top of the bowl is provided with a cover to enclose its contents for the purpose of retarding'the'evaporation of the holy water contained therein. The cover includes an opening for slidably receiving a finger button which is provided with passages that extend from its upper surface into communication with the in terior of the bowl, the button being yieldably retained in to greatly retard its evaporation. In the illustrated em? its uppermost position by a confined sponge contained within the bowl. Although the bowl may be only partially filled with holy water, the upper portion of the Patented May 30, 1961 to retardits evaporation but is immediately available to the'user by merely touching the finger button.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention, which will become more fully apparent from the following de tailed description, may be achieved by means of the apparatus described in connection with the accompanying drawings in whichz' Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating a holy water font which incorporates the features of the present invention; v Figure 2.is' a view in vertical section taken through the centerof the holy water font illustrated in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a detail plan view of the finger button by means of which the holy water is dispensed to the user; and

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view of the finger but ton illustrated in Figure 3'.

Reference is now made more particularly to the drawings andxspec'ifically to Fig. 1 thereof which illustrates a holy water font that incorporates the features of the present invention. As there shown, a bowl or receptacle 10 is mounted on a backplate 11 which is provided with a hole 12 for receiving a hook or the like by means of which the unit may be suspended against a wall at the entrancewa'y where the holy water font is to be located. The backplate 11 is shown in the drawings as presenting a smooth surface above the bowl 10 but a religious figurine or picture (not shown) is usually mounted on this surface to provide an aesthetic effect as well as an inspiration to the faithful.

The bowl 10 is fused or cemented to thebackplate 11.so,.,that the line of juncture therewith is sealed, the bowlltlgand backplate 11 cooperating to form a cavity or recess 15 in which the holy water is contained. Previous holy water fonts have been provided with the bowl 10 and backplate 11 to form the cavity 15 for containing the holy water. A sponge is then usually placed in the cavity 15 to absorb the holy water so that the faithful may moisten/the tips of their fingers by touching the sponge. The difficulty with such construction is that the top of the bowl was open and the holy water contained therein was exposed to the atmosphere so that it evaporated rapidly.

Such rapid evaporation of the holy water from the bowl 10 is eliminated in the construction of the present invention by providing a cover 16 for closing the top of the bowl 10, the cover 16 being in engagement with the upper edge of the bowl 10 with its inner edge flush against the surface of the backplate -11. The cover 16 therefore serves to enclose the cavity 15 and thereby pro.- tect the holy water in the bowl 10 from the atmosphere bodiment the cover 16 is removably secured to the top of the bowl 10 by two screws 21 which extend through suitable holes formed in the cover and into threaded engagement with bosses 22 which are formed integrally with the bowl 10 as shown in Figure 1.

Two holes 17 and 18 are provided in the cover 16, with the hole 17 serving to provide access to the cavity l5 for filling the bowl 10 with holy water while the hole 18 co v operates with the novel structure to be subsequently described and by means of which the user may draw holy water from the recess 15 for moistening his fingers. The hole 17 is provided with a removable stopper 19 which may be fabricated of rubber or other resilient material to enable the stopper to operate in a well known manner to close the hole 17 while being removable therefrom to permit the holy water to be poured through the hole 17 for refilling the recess 15.

On the other hand, the hole 18 is provided for removing the holy water from the cavity 15 in small quantities sufficient to moisten the tips of the users fingers.- To this end, a finger button 20 is slidably supported within the hole 18, the diameter of the finger button 20; being slightly smaller than the diameter of the hole 18 so that the button will slide freely in the hole. The lowermost end of the button 20 is provided with a flange 25 which is of a larger diameter thanthe diameter of the hole 18: so that it functions to limit the upward movement of' the finger button 20 in the hole 18.

The flange 25, in turn, is slidably contained within a conduit or sponge container 26 that depends from the bottom surface of the cover 16 with its walls being concentric with the hole 18. Although, as will be readily apparent, the: flange 25 and conduit 26 may be of other configurations, the preferred construction is illustrated in which the flange 25 is circular and the conduit 26is cylindrical with the inner diameter of the conduit 26 being slightly larger than the diameter of the flange 25 so that the latter will move freely in a vertical path within the conduit 26. The latter is provided with a reduced diameter end portion 27 which serves as a retainer to retain the upper end of an elongated sponge 30 within the conduit 26.

The sponge 30 is preferably of cylindrical configuration to conform to the configuration of the conduit 26 and is of sufficient diameter to completely fill the interior of the conduit 26. The sponge 30 may be a natural sponge or a fabricated sponge or rubber, cellulose or like material, it only being necessary that the sponge absorb water and be resilient when wet so that it will expand to fill the interior of the conduit 26 after it has been compressed therein. The upper end of the sponge 30 engages the bottom surface of the flange 25 to resiliently retain the upper annular surface of the flange in abutting engagement with the inner surface of the cover 16 about the hole 18 to yieldably urge the finger button 20 to its uppermost limit of movement. The sponge 30 extends downwardly from its engagement with the flange 25 through the reduced diameter end portion 27 of the conduit 26 and continues downwardly to the very bottom of the cavity where the lowermost end of the bowl 10 engages the backplate 11. The portion of the sponge 30 which passes through the reduced diameter portion 27 of the conduit 26 is compressed appreciably so that the reduced diameter 27 serves to retain the upper end of the sponge 30 within the confines of the conduit 26. With this arrangement, a downward movement of the finger button into the conduit 26 will serve to compress the portion of the sponge 30 that is contained within the conduit 26 but will not force this portion of the sponge downwardly out of the conduit 26.

A concave surface 31 is formed in the upper end of the finger button 20 and a central hole 32 extends from the concave surface 31 downwardly through the depth of the finger button 20 and the flange to place the interior of the conduit 26 in communication with the concave surface 31. Four branch passages 33 are provided to extend angularly in the finger button 20 to place the central.

portion of the hole 32 in communication with the concave surface 31 at points spaced radially from the upper opening of the hole 32. The particular arrangement of the central hole 32 with the branch passages 33 is a preferred embodiment to insure that the area of the concave surface 31 will be thoroughly moistened with holy water when the finger button 20 is pressed downwardly into the conduit 26. However, it is to be understood that other arrangements of holes in the finger button 20 may be provided without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, the passages 33 can extend downwardly in a vertical path from the concave surface 31 through the finger button 20 and the flange 25 in a manner similar to the placement of the central hole 32 for fully moistening the concave surface 31.

Holy water 35 contained in the cavity 15 of the bowl 10 will travel by capillary attraction to the uppermost end of the sponge contained in the conduit 26. Therefore,

even though only a small quantity of holy water 35 is located at the very bottom of the bowl 10, capillary attraction will cause this holy water to travel up the sponge into the conduit 26. In order for the user to gain access to this holy water, it is only necessary for him to touch the top surface of the button 20 with his fingertips and depress the button in the hole 18 to move it into the conduit 26. This action causes. the sponge 30 within the conduit 26 to compress, since it is retained therein by the reduced diameter end portion 27, and as the sponge 30 is compressed within the conduit 26 the holy water in the sponge will seek a means of escape and is forced through the central opening 32 and the passages 33 to the concave surface 31. Since the users fingertips are at this location, the holy water flowing through the central opening 32 and passages 33 will moisten the fingertips so that the user may bless himself with this holy water. Therefore, although the cover 16 encloses the cavity 15 to prevent the rapid evaporation of the holy water 35 contained in the bowl 10, the holy water is readily available to the user by merely touching the finger button 20 and depressing it into the conduit 26 against the resilient pressure of the sponge 30 that is contained within the conduit 26.

From the foregoing detailed description of the structure and operation of the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, it will be apparent that a new and improved holy water font has been provided which is adapted to contain a supply of holy water in a fully enclosed bowl to retard its evaporation while at the same time rendering the holy water readily accessible to the user for moistening his fingertips by merely touching the fingertips to the finger button and depressing the button to bring the holy water to the upper surface of the button.

Although the illustrative embodiment of the present; invention has been described in considerable detail for the purpose of making a full disclosure of a practical operative arrangement by means of which the invention may be practiced, it is to be understood that various novel features of the invention may be incorporated in other arrangements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the subjoined claims.

The principles of the invention having now been fully explained in connection with the foregoing description of embodying structure, I hereby claim as my invention:

1. In a holy water font; a receptacle presenting a cavity for containing a supply of holy water; a cover on the top of said receptacle to enclose its cavity for retarding the evaporation of holy water contained therein, said cover having an opening; a finger button slidably supported for axial movement within the opening of said cover and having at least one hole extending through it from its upper exterior surface to place its upper surface in communication with the interior of said receptacle; means operably connected to limit the upward movement of said finger button in the opening of said cover; a conduit having its upper end secured to the interior surface of said cover and extending downwardly there from through a portion of the depth of the cavity of said receptacle with the lower end of said conduit being of a reduced diameter and the bore of said conduit being in registration with the opening in said cover so that said finger button may be depressed from its upper limit of movement into the bore of said conduit; and a sponge having its upper portion confined within said conduit by the reduced diameter lower end of said conduit to fill the bore of said conduit and extending downwardly therefrom toward the bottom of the cavity of said receptacle, the upper end of said sponge abutting said finger button to resiliently retain said finger button in its uppermost position within the opening in said cover; whereby the holy water from the receptacle will travel to the upper end of said sponge by capillary attraction and when said finger button is depressed it will compress the portion of said sponge, within said conduit to force the water therefrom, causing a portion of the water to escape through the holes in said finger button to the upper exterior surface of said finger button where it is accessible to a person for moistening his finger tips.

2. In a holy water font; a receptacle presenting a cavity for containing a supply of holy water; a cover on the top of said receptacle to enclose its cavity for retarding the evaporation of the holy water contained therein, said cover having an opening; a finger button slidably supported within the opening of said cover and having at least one hole extending through it from its upper exterior surface to place its upper surface in communication with the interior of said receptacle; a flange on the lower end of said button and located beneath said cover to abut the interior surface of said cover about its opening for limiting the upward movement of said finger button; a conduit having its upper end secured to the interior surface of said cover and extending downwardly therefrom through a portion of the depth of the cavity of said receptacle with the lower end of said conduit being of a reduced diameter and the bore of said conduit being in registration with the opening in said cover, said conduit slidably containing said flange for axial movement within said conduit so that said finger button may be depressed axially from its upper limit of movement into the bore of said conduit; and a sponge having its upper portion confined within said conduit by the reduced diameter lower end of said conduit to fill the interior of said conduit and extending downwardly therefrom toward the bottom of the cavity of said receptacle, the upper end of said sponge abutting said finger button to resiliently retain said finger button in its uppermost position within the opening in said cover; whereby the holy water from the receptacle will travel to the upper end of said sponge by capillary attraction and when said finger button is depressed it will compress the portion of said sponge within said conduit to force the water therefrom, causing a portion of the water to escape through the holes in said finger button to the upper exterior surface of said finger button where it is accessible to a person for moistening his finger tips.

3. In a holy water font; a receptacle presenting a cavity for containing a supply of holy water; a cover on the top of said receptacle to enclose its cavity for retarding the evaporation of the holy water contained therein, said cover having an opening; a finger button slidably supported within the opening of said cover and having at least one hole extending through it from its upper exterior surface to place its upper surface in communication with the interior of said receptacle; a conduit having its upper end secured to the interior surface of said cover and extending downwardly therefrom through a portion of the depth of the cavity of said receptacle with the lower end of said conduit being of a reduced diameter and the bore of said conduit being in registration with the opening in said cover so that said finger button may be depressed from an upper position into the bore of said conduit; and a sponge having its upper portion confined within said conduit by the reduced diameter lower end of said conduit to fill the interior of said conduit and extending downwardly therefrom toward the bottom of. the cavity of said receptacle, the upper end of said sponge abutting the lower surface of said finger button to resiliently retain said finger button in its upper position within the opening in said cover; whereby the holy water from the receptacle will travel to the upper end of said sponge by capillary attraction and when said finger button is depressed it will compress the portion of said sponge within said conduit to force the water therefrom, causing the water to escape through the holes in said finger button to moisten the upper exterior surface of said finger button where it is accessible to a person for moistening his finger tips.

4. In a holy water font; a receptacle presenting a cavity for containing a supply of holy water; a cover on the top of said receptacle to enclose its cavity for retarding the evaporation of the holy water contained therein, said cover having an opening; a finger button slidably supported within the opening of said cover and having at least one hole extending through it from its upper exterior surface to place its upper surface in communication with the interior of said receptacle; a conduit having its upper end secured to the interior surface of said cover and extending downwardly therefrom through a portion of the depth of the cavity of said receptacle with the lower end of said conduit being of a reduced diameter and the bore of said conduit being in registration with the opening in said cover so that said finger button may be depressed axially from its upper limit of movement into the bore of said conduit; and a sponge having its upper portion confined within said conduit by the reduced diameter lower end of said conduit to fill the interior of said conduit and extending downwardly therefrom toward the bottom of the cavity of said receptacle with the upper end of said sponge abutting the lower surface of said finger button to resiliently retain said finger button in an upper position within the opening in said cover; whereby the holy water from the receptacle will travel to the upper end of said sponge by capillary attraction and when said finger button is depressed it will compress the portion of said sponge beneath it to force the Water therefrom, causing the water to escape through the holes in said finger button to moisten the upper exteriorisurface of said finger button where it is accessible to a person for moistening his finger tips.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,223,996 Mather Apr. 24, 1917 1,939,707 Kerber Dec. 19, 1933 2,364,843 Frazer Dec. 12, 1944 2,413,652 Pollock Dec. 31, 1946 2,691,957 Herr Oct. 19, 1954 2,822,958 Merkley Feb. 11, 1958 

